Computer Security is an oxymoron.
Regarding Apple, Linux, Microsoft, any OS:
See:
Can
Viruses Be Detected?
http://www.symantec.com/connect/articles/can-viruses-be-
detected
Quote - "Cohen picked up the ball with his Ph.D. thesis in
1986, and extended Goedel's theorem to prove that no perfect
virus checker can
ever exist. His theorem is devilishly
simple, relying on a technique known as
"proof by
contradiction."
and
Quote - "The real
reason virus checkers don't work well is
because they are all based on that
flawed assumption, that a
virus will always look and act the same. They pretend
that
the needle will always be a needle.
In real life, though, computer
viruses can mutate well
beyond recognition. They modify their own signatures
and
spread in almost unlimited variations. A truly effective
virus checker
would have to look for every permutation of
the virus signature, and while the
possibilities might not
be infinite, the problem is too large for a real-world
computer to tackle".
and
Quote - "Cohen's Theorem
proves that we can never truly find
out if our system is harbouring a virus. So
how, according
to Cohen, can a typical user protect his or her system from
disaster?
His answer is simple. For typical computer users, though, it
may
be harder to swallow than the sting of the virus itself.
Computer viruses
proliferate, Cohen writes, because we
embrace the very technologies that make
them possible".
and
Quote - "The solution Cohen
advocates is not a "package"
that you buy from a vendor and run in the
background. It's
not convenient, but he has proven by example that it works.
It's an aggressive regimen of education at all levels:
system administrators,
current users, and future users".
and, then we have Bruce
Schneier:
Ain't no
network strong enough - Business - Salon.com
,
http://www.salon.com/2000/08/31/schneier/
Quote -
"“Computer insecurity is inevitable,” he warns.
“Networks will be hacked. Fraud
will be committed. Money
will be lost. People will die.”
and, another
quote from article:
"Schneier ably debunks the magic-bullet claims of
every
class of product. Firewalls? Too easy to fool with
forged requests for access.
Intrusion detection systems? Too
many false alarms. Digital watermarks?
Taiwanese software
pirates will simply figure out how to delete them.
Biometrics? Please — a clever attacker need only steal a
digital file
containing thumbprint data, and they’ve got
instant access to the nation’s
goriest secrets.
The outlook offered by “Secrets and Lies” is so grim that
readers might be inclined to join an abacus-using Luddite
clan in Micronesia,
far from anything as elementary as an
ATM or Ms. Pac-Man machine. Schneier
sympathizes; he admits
that depression forced him to cease working on the
manuscript for over a year. “I got two-thirds of the way
through the book
without giving the reader any hope at all,”
he writes. “It was about then I
realized that I didn’t have
the hope to give.”
SO, them Apple
folks that are floating in confidence?
Well, as Apple gets bigger and
bigger, the target gets
bigger and bigger.
Math, is.. well math, software
is math, numbers...! And when
you do the math, apply the logic, well, Cohen's
Theorem, has
never been
proven to be in error. So, do the math yourself and
what is
the
lowest common denominator you arrive at regarding computer
security?
Conclusion - just because you can do something, does not
mean
you should do it.
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